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and technical schools of secondary school grade. These schools 

 are a waste of the resources of the state, for they duplicate the 

 regular schools in all respects save the one department. They 

 are deterimental also in developing a false notion of the re- 

 lative importance of the various departments of learning. The 

 establishment of these schools is direct condemnation of the 

 existing systems in the regular schools. The reason is not 

 far to seek. The curriculum of the average school is not 

 flexible, on the contrary it is so fixed that needed changes for 

 adjustment to new relations cannot be made without a serious 

 fight with the "ins." Rather than have this fight with an m- 

 flexible system, resort has been made to separate schools. Those 

 who have the interests of the public high schools at heart should 

 see to it that there is proper response to the demand for the 

 teaching of agriculture and other industrial subjects in high 

 schools. It should be met by honest endeavor to adjust old re- 

 lations to new demands, else separate schools are bound to come 

 with consequent division of funds and effort. I may add here 

 an interesting fact in our experience in botany classes in Chi- 

 cago. Of late, boys in our botany classes are strongly attracted 

 by the advantages offered in scientific agriculture, forestry, and 

 sanitary science. This movement is quite marked though we 

 give only one year of botany with little that suggests agricul- 

 ture in it. It is a trend country-ward from the city of city 

 youth, in contrast with the usual movement. 



We may now summarize the points I have made with respect 

 to the position of science in secondary schools. First, the time 

 usually given to science is very small in comparison with the 

 importance of the subject and in comparison with the cultural 

 subjects, averaging only one-half to one-third the time given to 

 foreign languages alone. Secondly, the science courses as now 

 planned are fragments of larger subjects and not enough time 

 is spent on any one of them to secure good results either in dis- 

 ciplinary training or in information, 'i'hird, the science courses 

 do not form a graded orderly development of knowledge such 

 as we find in other departments. Each year's work is a de- 

 tached piece and contributes but little to any other year's work 



